George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld
Life Peerage | |
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Personal details | |
Born | Arthur George Weidenfeld 13 September 1919 Vienna, Austria |
Died | 20 January 2016 London, England | (aged 96)
Nationality | Austrian, British |
Political party | Labour (until 1981) SDP (1981–88) 'Continuing' SDP (1988–90) |
Spouses | Jane Sieff
(m. 1952; div. 1955)Sandra Payson Meyer
(m. 1966; div. 1976) |
Children | Laura Weidenfeld |
Parent(s) | Max and Rosa Weidenfeld |
Occupation | Publisher |
George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld,
Early life
Weidenfeld was born in
Career
By 1942, he was a political commentator for the BBC and also wrote a weekly newspaper column, coming into contact with General de Gaulle and Tito as a result.[5] In 1949, Weidenfeld served for a year as the political adviser and Chief of Cabinet to Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel.[5] In that role, Weidenfeld launched a campaign to convince the world that Israel should keep western Jerusalem.[6] The city had been divided between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan after the two sides signed an armistice agreement earlier in the year.
Publishing career
In 1948, Weidenfeld co-founded the publishing firm Weidenfeld & Nicolson with Nigel Nicolson. Intending to start an upmarket political magazine, a mix of the New Statesman, Fortune and The New Yorker, they found that the post-war paper shortage made a book publishing concern more feasible, and the new firm was partly intended as a cover for the impractical magazine.[5] Over the years, the firm published many outstanding titles, including the British edition of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita in 1959 and Nicolson's biography of his parents, Portrait of a Marriage (1973).
In 1985, Weidenfeld's publishing interests expanded to the United States, when he acquired the Grove Press in partnership with Ann Getty (wife of Gordon Getty). Grove later merged with the New York division of Weidenfeld & Nicolson to form Grove Nicolson. In 1991 Weidenfeld & Nicolson's UK branch was sold to the Orion Publishing Group[3] and became Orion's main non-fiction imprint, with Weidenfeld as non-executive chairman.
In 1993, the American company, Grove Nicolson, merged with the
Philanthropy
Weidenfeld served in many philanthropic capacities including chairman of the
Awards and honours
Weidenfeld became a
Further honours included
Personal life
Weidenfeld married Jane Sieff in 1952, daughter of Israel Sieff, Baron Sieff[18] who was a part of the family that controlled Marks and Spencer. Before their divorce in 1955[19] they had a daughter,[20] Laura Weidenfeld (b. 1953).
After their divorce, he married Barbara Skelton (1916–1996), the English memoirist, novelist and socialite, in 1956, who had previously been married to Cyril Connolly.[21]
His third marriage was to Sandra Payson Meyer (1926–2004) in 1966.[20][22] She was the daughter of Americans Charles Shipman Payson and Joan Whitney, of the Whitney family.[23][24][25] They divorced 10 years later in 1976.[19]
His fourth and final marriage was to Annabelle Whitestone (born c. 1946),[26] who was 26 years his junior, in 1992. They remained married until his death in 2016.[3][27]
He was a staunch supporter of Israel and was described as an "adamantine
He died in London on 20 January 2016, aged 96[29][1] and was honoured with burial on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.[30][28]
Arms
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Published works
- Remembering My Good Friends: An Autobiography. New York City: ISBN 0-06-017286-X – via Internet Archive.
References
- ^ a b c Alan Cowell (21 January 2016). "George Weidenfeld, British Publisher of Lolita and London Fixture, Dies at 96". The New York Times.
- ^ Gross, Tom (20 January 2016). "A marvellous conversationalist who befriended them all". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- ^ a b c d Oliver Marre,"A man whose life has been an open book", The Observer, 28 June 2009.
- ^ "Lord Weidenfeld". Desert Island Discs. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
- ^ a b c Pollard, Stephen (23 July 2015). "Lord Weidenfeld: It's far easier being 95". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
- OCLC 763182492.
Weizmann's chief of staff, George Weidenfeld, a young Viennese who had recently founded his own publishing house in London, launched a campaign to convince the world that Israel should keep west Jerusalem.
- ^ Europaeum. "Weidenfeld Institute for Strategic Dialogue". Archived from the original on 4 October 2008.
- ^ Danny Fortson (7 September 2007). "Bonfire of the vanities". The Independent. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013.
...the Club of Three, which despite the forboding [sic] name is a non-profit outfit dedicated to promoting 'broader understanding of political, social and economic developments within and between the three countries'. It does so by convening meetings in different European capitals of businessmen, academics and journalists from the UK, France and Germany.
- ^ "About the Trust". Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ "British Jew who fled Nazis funds rescue of Christians fleeing ISIS" in Haaretz, 16 July 2015.
- ^ Danny Wiser, "Jewish peer who fled Nazis funds operation to rescue Syrian and Iraqi Christians", Catholic Herald, 15 July 2015.
- ^ "No. 38019". The London Gazette. 18 July 1947. p. 3371.
- ^ "No. 44984". The London Gazette. 9 December 1969. p. 12245.
- ^ "No. 46949". The London Gazette. 29 June 1976. p. 8999.
- ^ "Obituary: Lord Weidenfeld", The Daily Telegraph, London, 21 January 2016, p. 25.
- ^ Sheila Gunn, "Diamond refuses to yield ground". The Times, 15 March 1988, p. 4.
- ^ "No. 59647". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2010. p. 6.
- ^ Oliver Marre (27 June 2009). "Oliver Marre talks to George Weidenfeld, a man whose life has been an open book". The Guardian.
- ^ a b Pick, Hella (20 January 2016). "Lord Weidenfeld obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
- ^ a b "British Publisher and Mrs. Meyer Will Be Married; George Weidenfeld to Wed Niece of John Hay Whitney". The New York Times. 14 July 1966. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
- ^ Hoare, Liam (20 January 2016). "George Weidenfeld, Inspirational Holocaust Survivor Who Funded Rescue of Christians From ISIS, Dies at 96". The Forward. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
- ^ "Mrs. Meyer Is Wed to London Publisher". The New York Times. 30 July 1966. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
- ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (25 July 2004). "Sandra Payson, 78, Influential Arts Patron". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
- ^ "George Weidenfeld". Archived from the original on 23 July 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
- ^ Nemy, Enid (21 December 1976). "There Was Hardly Room to Admire Stars". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
- ^ Harvey Sachs Rubinstein: A Life (1995), p. 84.
- ^ Elizabeth Grice (24 February 2005). "In each of us, there's an element of snobbery". The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ a b "Obituary: George, Baron Weidenfeld, publisher and philanthropist". The Economist. 27 January 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- ^ "George Weidenfeld: The Dueling Cavalier Who Fought for Good and Compassion". Haaretz.com.
- Debrett's Peerage. 2003. p. 1648.
Further reading
- Richard Abel and Gordon Graham, eds., Immigrant Publishers: The Impact of Expatriate Publishers in Britain and America in the 20th Century, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Transaction Publishers, 2009; Routledge, 2017.
- ISBN 9781474621090.
External links
- Portraits of George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Quentin Letts (1 January 1999). "The New Statesman Profile – George Weidenfeld". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2007.
- George Weidenfeld, arte.tv
- Weidenfeld made an .
- Lord Weidenfeld's biography, Institute for Strategic Dialogue
- The IJP George Weidenfeld Bursary for British and German journalists
- Ion Trewin, "How George Weidenfeld defied the sceptics: profile", The Daily Telegraph, 18 July 2009.